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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;The Meat man, post: 24663439, member: 135271&quot;]You know how it is, when you&#039;re browsing a coin auction or store, and a coin suddenly &quot;jumps out&quot; at you? You immediately recognize it as something special. Well that is what happened to me the moment I saw this one come up on [USER=10613]@Victor_Clark[/USER] &#039;s VCoins store, and it did not take long for it to hop from my wishlist, to cart, to mailbox!</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1572380[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Of course, what grabbed my attention on this coin was the absolutely extraordinary portrait of Constantius I. Far from the heavily stylized, enforced uniformity one usually sees on Tetrarchic folles, the portrait on this coin shows realism, proportion, and a sensitivity reminiscent of the coinage of Hadrian, Trajan, or even the Flavians. It&#039;s a relic of a bygone era - a throwback to the high Empire of the 2nd century, a time irrevocably lost through the crises of the mid-late 200&#039;s AD.</p><p><br /></p><p>What makes this coin even more amazing to me is that it came from the mint at Alexandria, Egypt. Now I&#039;ve nothing against the Alexandrians but you have to face it, by the time of the Dominate the portrait style was distinctive and about as far from proportioned realism as you can get! Even the better mints such as Aquileia or Ticinum rarely, if ever, turned out a portrait to match this one, nor did other Alexandrian coins of this same issue (RIC VI 40). The only other RIC VI 40 I could find that is remotely similar was an <a href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/C_B-6265" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/C_B-6265" rel="nofollow">obverse die match</a> from the British Museum. It would appear that this obverse die is something of an engraver&#039;s anomaly. <u>--EDIT-- I should have looked more closely - the BM coin is <i>not</i> a die match, although the portrait styles are very similar. Same engraver, perhaps?</u></p><p><br /></p><p>It makes me wonder, who was this die engraver, and was he consciously trying to imitate the artistic style of days gone by? Did he have an older piece from the 2nd century, kept either as a curiosity, good luck token, or maybe even as part of a collection? Did anyone else in antiquity notice the break from the standard local style? The speculation is interesting if nothing else.</p><p><br /></p><p>The reverse is also fascinating, and an unusual one amid the sea of “Genius” types. It’s also a fitting type for Constantius, as Caesar to Maximianus Herculius. The reverse alone makes this coin something special, quite aside from the obverse.</p><p><br /></p><p>All in all, a beautiful coin which will remain a favorite in my collection![/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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